DGEstE no longer exists
Portugal abolished the Direção-Geral dos Estabelecimentos Escolares (DGEstE) in 2025 as part of the reorganisation of the education administration.
Its former functions were redistributed under the new structure, including Agência para a Gestão do Sistema Educativo, I.P. (AGSE, I.P.) and regional bodies.
Older instructions can still tell applicants to obtain “DGEstE authentication”. We treat that as a legacy instruction and map the document to the current education-authority route.
Private schools and public schools do not follow the same path
Documents issued by Portuguese public educational establishments are public documents for apostille purposes.
Documents from private pre-school, basic and secondary education establishments can require prior education-authority formalities before the apostille is issued.
We identify the school, document and current competent route before the file is submitted for apostille.
Typical private-school documents
The route can include:
- school completion certificates
- certificados de habilitações
- grade records
- enrolment or attendance records
- academic declarations
- other official records issued by a Portuguese private school below higher-education level
If the school has not yet issued the document, send us the requirement and the school details. We can include the document-request stage in the case.
Do not confuse this route with IES
IES, I.P. deals with higher education.
A document from a private Portuguese university or other private higher education institution follows the higher-education authentication route.
A document from a private pre-school, basic or secondary school follows the non-higher-education route described on this page.
The issuing institution decides which side of the system the document belongs to.
From school document to finished international file
Portugal Papers can handle the complete chain in Portugal:
- obtain the school record when needed
- complete the current education-authority authentication step
- arrange the apostille
- add certified translation
- send the finished documents abroad
If you only have an old checklist saying “DGEstE”, send it to us. You do not need to work out the replacement authority yourself.